#52Ancestors: Week 20 – Rolling with the Bright Shiny Objects – Kathyrn M. Roll

This is week 20 of the 2015 #52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge where a group of u52ancestors-2015 Images blog about a different ancestor for each week of the year.  To learn more about the 52 Ancestor Challenge visit Amy Johnson’s site at Amy’s website.

My plan was to write about the wife of a great uncle. However, I cannot verify her maiden name. I starting searching for more information. Of course, I squirreled. Also known as being distracted by BSO’s (Bright Shiny Objects). Since I couldn’t find anything on Frances Roll. Let me write about my BSO. It is still somewhat related.

Frances husband was David Roll, the brother of my great grandfather, Ollie Roll. Well the Roll brothers had five sisters. One was (is?), Kathryn M. Roll, daughter of David Wayne Roll, Senior, and Catherine Traylor Guy. Kathryn was born in 1890 and passed away in 1958. She lived in Muhlenberg and Henderson Counties in Kentucky.

Kathryn married Bluford C. Ellison, marriage date unknown. The couple had five children. Unfortunately, Bluford was killed in an explosion from a coal woodstove. Bluford’s occupation was that of a farmer. The explosion most likely occurred at home on December 19, 1923. Bluford died of his injuries on Christmas morning, December 25, 1923. Bluford was 35 years old. Two year later, Kathryn loses her youngest son, Earl, to dysentery.

Children of Bluford and Kathryn Roll.

Margaret Ellison  (1912 – ?)   married Robert H. Porter
Agnes Laura Ellison (1914 – 1988)     married Harold Bangs
Foster Carlin Ellison (1917 – 1992)     married Evelyn Pearl Irwin
Stella Mae Ellison (1920 – 1986)         married Charles David Wright
Earl David Ellison (August 1923- May1925)


To support her family, including her widow mother, Katie Roll, Kathryn works as a machine operator in a radio tubes factory. Her son, Foster, is listed as an inmate in the Daviess County Jail on the 1940 census. There is some type of distinction between inmates and prisoners at the jail as both terms are used. Foster heads to Texas shortly thereafter and marries. His name is carried down to Junior and his grandson.

I was not able to locate an image for Kathryn’s death record. Her death record is recorded as Katherine Roll Ellison. It includes her parents’ name. Burial location is not provided. I didn’t have any luck find a memorial on Findagrave.com

Death source:
“Kentucky Death Records, 1911-1961,” index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVJ5-B78S : accessed 17 May 2015), Katherine Roll Ellison, 16 Oct 1958; citing Rural, Daviess, Kentucky, United States, , Office of Vital Statistics, Frankfort; FHL microfilm 1,709,630.

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